Losing a Child Essay Example

Emma Donoghue shows the impact of losing a child and how one major lost can be found as walking through hell and back and make you do things that you wouldn't do in a good state of mind.

Dear Lang is a story about one who has trauma and how it affects other people around her. Trauma is a deeply distressing and disturbing experience.

Yaya, one of the main characters in Dear Lang, struggles with trauma because she lost Lang. Her wounds push her to get closer to Lang, but her actions seem unhelpful.

The letter that Yaya wrote to Lang was inappropriate. Lang is now 16, and Yaya writes a hurtful letter meant to be a happy birthday letter. Yaya’s letter highlights conflict between her and Cheryl, Lang’s birth mother, saying that Cheryl kicked Yaya out of Lang’s life, implying that Cheryl stole Lang. An example of this is when Yaya explains to Lang, “She was only trying to keep you to herself” (Donoghue 215).Trauma can because people to never expect that they maybe have been the problem.yaya show again and again that it wasn’t her fault and it what all’s Cheryl and the things she did that made her a unprecedented mom to raise Lang.The negativity started with Yaya taking issue with only Cheryl being called “Mom”. She continued with other poor decisions Cheryl made before they had Lang, such as when Cheryl lost her virginity and when she got her first hangover. Yaya shared these things to make herself look better. Yaya crosses a line that she should not have crossed because she has not seen Lang since Lang was very young. Yaya tries to be discreet, but her trauma comes out as anger at Cheryl. It’s revealed in a wound that is open and hurting. Yaya keeps reminding Cheryl of what Cheryl has lost, and she also reminds Cheryl of what she herself has lost. She opens memories that need to be at rest.

Yaya first hangover when she was 13 had her first hangover when she (Donoghue 212)

Yaya’s trauma is long term. She has baggage that is hard to let go of, which explains why she wrote the letter. It starts out as a very sweet, kind letter, then shows the pain she is carrying with her. Cheryl is a wall between Yaya and Lang. The letter is meant to get over the wall and reach Lang.

I’m just a woman who messed up her chance to raise you I suspect your life’s been just fine without me in it (Donoghue 230).

That last part of “life’s been just fine with without me The letter reopens the wound. The trauma is the nasty blood and pain, with the after effect being the infection coming from leaving it open and uncared for. The longer you leave something uncared for, the more likely it is to scar. The scar will always remind them of what they went through. This can either be good as they learn to civilly leave with their mistakes or keep reopening the wounds because they haven’t forgiven themselves or others.

Trauma is like a volcano that has tried to keep all the lava down, but then a volcano will eventually blow. Just like humans with trauma they try to keep it down, but alway come up to the surfers and how other people portray it as stocking and depressions and other things as Yaya she follows Lang to daycare and she asked friends to tell her what Cheryl was doing with Lang.